Manovich and New Media.

New media is a growing field and skill in the world where the entire wealth of human knowledge can be accessed in seconds from almost anywhere. The academic world is trying to make sense of this few found ability. New forms and models of news and entertainment are coming up from everywhere. People can now associate an emotion with a single picture. It is hard to define exactly what new media is.

What is new media?

New media is something that lacks a certain definition.  Manovich says that it’s anything distributed in an electronic format. He claims that ANYTHING on a computer, Ipod, phone, or any other outdated bit of technology is new media, Even if the original text, music, movie, or image exists in a hard, tangible format in the real world. 

I disagree, the term new media should only be applied things that only exist on the internet. There is a whole electronic world at our finger tips and a lot of does not exist on paper. That material, that original content, should be considered new media. Before the internet and computers there was a thing called a “newspaper”.  “Newspapers” relayed world news and events, and entertainment to many people in an unprecedented manner. Soon they were wide spread and common. Before the printing press books were not common and literacy was rather useless. Folk stories were the only way people were entertained. News was spread by people telling other people what happened and hopefully the people affected would hear. It was that or maybe “letters” that news was spread. After much research I could not discover the purpose of “letters” beyond a personal dialogue between two people.

Information technology has evolved over hundreds of years. What is happening with computers and other similar technologies is progress. Here is a new idea, newer than newspapers, all about new media. Technology has evolved language and media. Artist and film makers and musician all have to consider the internet as a medium for them to conquer.